Sure-fire way to solve the microscope puzzle

[Adamant]

For those struggling wwith it, give this method a go:

When you start the game, try moving your bottom right piece one step towards the left for the first couple turns. Stauf will sometimes focus on building a "fort" in the upper right and allow you to keep expanding towards the left and eventually absorb his piece. In this case, once you've covered the entire bottom row, you can then place pieces in the 3 leftmost positions of the second row from the bottom and end up with a situation where you and Stauf will have 10 pieces each on the field in a direct mirror of each other, and it will be your turn to make the next move.

However, if instead of expanding all the way to the left you instead only grab the four rightmost positions on the bottom row, then just the leftmost of these pieces to the sixth position and absorb Stauf's bottom left piece, you can then fill in the rest of the bottom row and the three leftmost positions of the second row and end up in the same "10-pieces-each" mirror situation as described above, only this time it will be Stauf's turn to make the next move.

This, of course, means you can jot down which move Stauf makes before trying to solve the puzzle from this position. The next time you play, you can then follow the first pattern to get the 10-pieces-each situation with you making the next move, at which point you can simply make the move Stauf chose as the ideal one. Jot down what Stauf's response to this move is, and, on your next play, follow the second pattern so that Stauf will make the first move after the 10 initial pieces are set up, then respond to Stauf's move the same way he responded to you when you made this move. Then jot down what his response to this response is.

From hereon, just keep alternating between these two patterns and keep noting down how Stauf responds to you using his moves, then repeat that response on your next play. Stauf himself will essentially teach you the perfect counter to his every move. Continue doing this and you'll eventually win. It's cheap, but brilliant.

[Adamant]

Here's the first couple moves. Remember, if Stauf interacts with his A1 piece in any way instead of just sitting there and letting you absorb it, just reset the puzzle and try again. He has I think 3 different openings he chooses between at random:
F1
E1
D1
C1
B1
A2
B2
C2
C3
D4
Move C3 to E4
D6
E2
Move D2 to F4
G5
Move E4 to C6
Move G1 to E3
Move F4 to F2
(at this point I won by just strategizing my way through the remainder of the puzzle and didn't note down any further moves)

[NighT WolF]

That's how i somehow managed to beat the puzzle in the original version which was released here. I always thought it would maybe be a flaw in the AI. But after reading all the stories about that puzzle, i really doubt that. Still a very impressive puzzle. It's a pain in the ass, unfun, demoralizing and depressing to play, but still very impressive.

[NostromoXP]

7th Guest Infection AI[analogbit.com]

This is an AI to defeat the “infection” or “attax” AI inside the microscope of 7th Guest.

[identifiedasbeingdisrespectful]

Originally posted by NighT WolF:

That's how i somehow managed to beat the puzzle in the original version which was released here. I always thought it would maybe be a flaw in the AI. But after reading all the stories about that puzzle, i really doubt that. Still a very impressive puzzle. It's a pain in the ass, unfun, demoralizing and depressing to play, but still very impressive.

it's because the AI is based on CPU speed, the faster your CPU, the better it plays. On the average CPU when this was first made, it's wasn't too difficult.